To begin with, I'd like to set down the political and ideological frame of reference under which I try to live.

Simply stated, it is that Everything is Everything. We are all interrelated and interdependent; either everybody owns everything or nobody owns anything. . . . Underlying that framework is a belief that people collectively and individually have the capacity—better yet, the desire—to change their relationships to each other and their environments in a positive way . . . .

Melvin H. King is 50 years old, the father of six children, and his beard is streaked these days with gray and white. For nearly 20 years he's been a political activist in the city's black community (his first of three unsuccessful tries for the school committee came in 1961), and since 1973 he has served as state representative for a district that includes most of the South End, much of the Fenway, and portions of Roxbury and the Back Bay. But after 20 years in politics, 15 years in social work and a lifetime spent observing Boston's racial polarization firsthand, he remains the city's ultimate optimist. "He is the last of the true humanists," said long-time backer Martin Gopen. "If you can understand his incredible faith in people, sometimes to the point of frustration, then you can understand him."

And you can begin to understand why he's running for mayor when, by all realistic measures, he doesn't have a chance. No black has ever come close to winning the mayoralty, or even to becoming one of the two finalists in the November election, and King stands little chance on that score as well. In fact, unless he changes the haphazard style his campaign has displayed so far, there is little chance he will even mount a good showing in the September balloting.

King, true to form, disagrees with this analysis, saying that the people's desire for positive leadership "may be a lot larger in numbers than the press and other doomsayers realize." Maybe. But in one important sense, whether the election results bear out his optimism or not, Mel King's candidacy may be as vital to the coming campaign as that of Mayor Kevin White, or state Senator Joseph Timilty, or School Committee President David Finnegan. For King has some things to say that the other major contenders will not, for fear of losing votes: his continual attacks on the White administration for giving anti-buser James Kelly of South Boston a $17,500-a-year job demonstrate as much. (Said King to one crowd last week: "The mayor is saying, 'If you are a racist and you are violent, we will reward you.'")

Said Kay Gibbs, a South End resident and former legislative black caucus staffer who has long backed King: "One of the very first things he's out to accomplish, which he clearly will, is to raise the quality of the dialogue in the race. Mel's view is that there are a lot of issues the other candidates will not and don't want to talk about, and they affect the quality of life here the most. Mel is hell-bent to raise them."

Racial healing To be sure, racism still exists. But the distance our culture has come in 50 years — from blacks fighting for basic civil rights to a black man running for the White House — is remarkable.

Holding his punches All year, Boston’s political observers have been watching for signs of an anti-Menino tipping point in the mayoral race.

Deval Patrick and the mosque I was extremely disappointed to read your close-minded, ignorant, and bigoted position on Governor Deval Patrick’s meeting with Muslims at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury.

Redskin redux A couple months ago, when I wrote about the fact that the Sanford and Wiscasset high schools are the last remaining Maine schools using the mascot nickname “redskins,” Sanford principal Allan Young told me that if “redskin” critics called his students racists, he would support a change.

Black like him? Whatever your race — and whatever you think of his résumé, or his politics, or his yen for tax-cheating cabinet nominees — Barack Obama's arrival in the Oval Office is something to celebrate.

Ask the black woman I've lived in Maine for seven years and been writing for this fine publication for about five, and during that time I've covered a wide array of subjects on the issue of diversity in Maine.

Blackballed Turner might want to avoid hitching his fortunes to those of such utterly disreputable pols as former DC mayor Marion Barry, ex-Newark mayor Sharpe James, and Dianne Wilkerson.

Review: American Violet Arrested for a crime she didn't commit, Dee Roberts is enlisted by an ACLU lawyer (Tim Blake Nelson) to sue the county for racist intent and stop the DA from what is continually referred to as "terrorizing the black community."

Racism in real estate After more than a decade in the business, the real-estate agent knew that many landlords had very narrow ideas about whom they did and didn't want living in their apartments and houses. Most of them were fairly subtle about it. "I want the right people," they might say, being careful to couch their instructions in innocuous-sounding terms.